Political, economic and social infrastructure challenges posed by decline of rural areas of Canada

By Michael J Morris

I n 2015 I took my second trip in three years from British Columbia to Ontario, and return, taking essentially the same route. I have updated my musings from my first trip in 2012 following the news that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau plans amassive infrastructure project.

As I travelled from British Columbia to Ontario and back in the summer of 2012, there was one constant refrain that stayed with me all the way, and remains with me now. I was witnessing first hand the decline of rural Canada, and quite possibly, if things don't change soon, Cranbrook may meet the same fate as I saw in other parts of the country -- boarded up hotels, service stations, stores, restaurants, banks  and homes, in communities that may never have been really prosperous but held their own not so many years ago.

And, in many communities, including my home town of Chapleau, Ontario, the infrastructure is well beyond its past due date. Canada is crumbling all around us!

Transient that I have been, although 2015 marks 26 years that I have lived in Cranbrook, I am one of those fortunate Canadians who lived in Alberta. Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario before coming to British Columbia in 1989.

I travelled by bus from Cranbrook to Calgary, flew to Ottawa, and then drove to North Bay, on to Sudbury and further across Highway 17 to Highway 129 and north for a high school reunion in my home town of Chapleau in 2012. Same route in 2015.

I've made the Ontario portion of my trip many times, and that is when it struck me that things weren't the same, Some communities had all but disappeared except for the closed buildings. I flew back from Ottawa to Calgary.

Perhaps a sign of the times was that the busiest business anywhere on my trip was a Tim Hortons located just off the highway at Blind River, Ontario. 

While I noticed it most in Ontario, on the bus trips to and from Calgary, I saw the same situation developing in some communities in Alberta and British Columbia. Friends have  told me it's the same in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

 I have to make a trip to Brandon, Manitoba, and if I can find a Greyhound bus that will get me from here to there and back, I will see for myself.

There has been some discussion recently about empty space in downtown Cranbrook, and as I continue my walking tours, I am noticing the same along 'The Strip' and at Tamarack Centre.

In those parts of rural Canada that have been especially hard hit, there has been a significant population decline, but so far statistically that does not seem to have become a significant factor in Cranbrook, although in the 26 years I have been here, there has been a net population increase of about 15 to 20 percent. Not exactly inspiring considering that it was just over 16,000 in 1989.

Cranbrook may remain static for some time yet given its role as a regional service centre but if the outlying communities experience population decline, that will obviously affect this community adversely.

Cranbrook faces huge infrastructure challenges too,

Writing in Dal News, a publication of Dalhousie University in Halifax in June 2012, Ryan McNutt notes that "the 'best of times' story is that Canada’s urban centres are strengthening in population, boosted in no small part by significant immigration numbers in major cities like Toronto and Vancouver. The 'worst of times' story ...  declines in rural areas, posing significant political, economic and social challenges for Canada’s future."

And as population declines, there are fewer left to pay for the infrastructure that is needed.

Mr. McNutt quotes Fazley Siddiq, economics professor at Dalhousie’s School of Public Administration and a fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University as saying,  “It’s a real tragedy, because the metropolitan/non-metropolitan balance that we’ve had has been altered in a way that’s not desirable,” 

“It’s one thing to say that we’re becoming more and more urbanized, a modern industrialized country. Those developments sound positive, and they are in many respects. But behind the mask of that success is a hollowing out of much of the rest of Canada. And if it isn’t happening yet in certain parts of the country, the potential for this trend to get a lot worse is there.”

Dr. Siddiq noted that while urban growth is not without its challenges—congestion, pollution, traffic and infrastructure, housing and schooling—the increase in population brings with it more business activity and a larger tax base, which can support solutions for addressing those challenges. And then there are the positives of urbanization: more career opportunities, a younger dynamic population, housing booms and more."

“A declining population, in contrast, I don’t see too many positives associated with it,” says Dr. Siddiq. “It can be quite traumatic for families and businesses when home prices go down, jobs become increasingly scarce and businesses no longer are sustainable in small communities. So then people leave, leading to another reduction in business activity and home prices. It’s a downward spiraling effect.”

Dr. Siddiq is studying population trends and their effect but in the McNutt article he did not sound overly optimistic: “Our history has been one of an expanding frontier, and economic activity spilling over. That’s why we have the country that we do. But whether we will continue to be able to sustain viable communities, viable populations, in far-flung areas, is something that causes me great concern.”

However, on a more optimistic note the Canadian Rural Research Network in its June 2013 report found that some rural areas are experiencing population growth - the one closest to Cranbrook that is included in top five rural regions in employment growth in Cranbrook  is Camrose-Drumheller Economic Region in Alberta.  Showing employment growth above the national average for 12 consecutive months are  Thompson-Okanagan Economic Region and Cariboo Economic Region in British Columbia.

These regions may be places to start looking at how they are doing it, and they are not too far away.

The task of ensuring a viable future for Cranbrook, may not be easy, given the immense divide that seems to prevail within the community, but as Lyndon Johnson, former president of the United  States used to say when he was Senate Majority Leader, quoting from the prophet Isaiah, "Come, let us reason together." Much progress can be made when the focus is on those things that bring us together rather than those that divide us.

Let's carefully examine Mr. Trudeau's proposals.

In the interests of full disclosure I am not now and never have been a member of the Liberal Party, or the New Democratic Party. At one time I was a member of the Progressive Conservative Party -- eons ago

My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Toni O'Keeffe on 'Those Who Trespass Against Us' a story of survival

MJM and Toni, August 26, 2015

After having coffee with my good friend Toni O'Keeffe today, I went looking for a story I had written after receiving a copy of her amazing book 'Those Who Trespass Against Us'. In slightly updated form, here it is. It was just great to have coffee with Toni on her visit to Cranbrook!  ..MJM

I was walking home the other afternoon on a bright sunny Fall day noticing that snow was beginning to appear on the mountain tops, the first hint that Winter will soon be in the Rockies. But I was a bit annoyed as I had been looking for gift cards to use as stocking stuffers in a Christmas parcel for a friend, and I couldn't find any suitable ones.

A car pulled over beside me and there was my friend Nancy, one of the first people (and most helpful) that I met when I arrived at College of the Rockies so many years ago now.

"I have a book for you," she said, and handed me a copy of Those Who Trespass Against Us, Toni O'Keeffe's amazing story of her father's survival despite years of abuse by those charged with his care in Ireland between 1939 and 1948.

I knew the book had been published but was so delighted to receive a signed copy from Toni, one of the truly wonderful people I have ever known, and so much fun too! Toni was director of communications at College of the Rockies most of the time I was there, and was also my student in the very first Writing for New Media course I taught in 1994!!!

It was also my privilege to meet Toni's father Walter O'Keeffe and spend an evening with this incredibly talented Irish gentleman, who had moved to Canada and raised his family. Walter would nod in agreement as I shared tales told to me by my grandmother that while I had never doubted were true, he confirmed with a smile and twinkle in his eyes.

Toni's story captures the very essence of the inhumanity that exists among us, but it is also a tale of survival! Walter O'Keeffe and his brothers were 'sentenced' to Greenmont Industrial School for Boys in Cork where those in charge starved, preyed upon and beat the children in their care. Toni brings great passion to the story, and often told me it was a story that had to be told, not only to bring out the horror imposed on her father, but more importantly perhaps as part of a healing process.

Working with her father Toni wrote: "It is my hope that through the process of telling his story he will be released from the demons that hold him so tightly and that he will find a place of healing."

Those Who Trespass Against Us was completed before Walter O'Keeffe died. May he rest in peace.

A must read!

Robert Fife Brought Duffy Scandal to the Office of the Prime Minister

Robert Fife Brings Duffy Scandal to the Office of the Prime Minister, a column I wrote for the Cranbrook Guardian on May 17, 2013

by Michael J Morris

Updated on August 16,2013 to remind Canadian citizens that it was a journalist who brought the scandal into the open. No spin, just great reporting by Robert Fife. Where I have updated is in italics.  mjm

When I saw the tweet that once again Robert Fife had proven why he is simply the best, it immediately captured my attention.

Kevin Newman, the host of CTV's Question Period was retweeting a comment by Rosa Hwang, senior broadcast producer with CTV National News. "Once again Robert Fife proves why he's simply the best."

Bob is now the host.

"What had Fife done now?", I wondered, and soon learned that the Ottawa Bureau Chief of CTV News had broken the story that Nigel Wright, the chief of staff to Stephen Harper, the prime minister, had written a personal cheque to Mike Duffy, the senator appointed by Harper,  for $90,172 to pay back expenses to which the senator was not entitled. 

The Duffy scandal was now placed squarely in the office of the prime minister by Bob Fife, who was in Grade Nine when I arrived  to teach at Chapleau High School in 1969, and once he learned I had been a daily newspaper reporter, he never stopped asking me questions throughout his high school years. And when he was attending the University of Toronto, he challenged me on every issue when he came home on vacation or to spend the summers.

In the interests of full disclosure, Bob's father, the late Clyde Fife was one of my father's best friends, and my grandmother and his grandmother were also great friends.

Careful readers will note that I have referred to him in the above paragraphs as Robert, when referring to the quote about him, then Fife, then Bob. That's the way it's been for 46 years now. I call him by one and all depending on the situation -- I just did a rough calculation. How time flies, and how proud I am that from the very beginning of his career as a reporter, Robert 'Bob' Fife has been among the best of his generation.

In November 2008, Deborah Howell, the ombudsperson at the Washington Post wrote that "good reporters are the heart of news gathering. If it's news, they have to know it. Without them, the public wouldn't have the news and information essential to running a democracy -- or our lives. Whether the story is local, national or foreign, it has to be gathered on the ground by a reporter." 

That sums Bob up as he simply did his job and revealed another twist in the continuing saga of Duffy, the senator appointed to represent Prince Edward Island but really lives in Ottawa. 

Just recently Bob won the Canadian Association of Journalists Award for his work on uncovering the XL Foods scandal in 2012. In the 1980s when he was still a "young" reporter, Maclean's magazine called him the best investigative reporter in Canada for his coverage of the Ocean Ranger disaster.

He has written two books, A Capital Scandal with John Warren, about the Brian Mulroney years as prime minister and the other Kim Campbell: The Making of a Politician.

Ms Powell added in answering the question about what makes a good reporter, "Endless curiosity and a deep need to know what is happening. Then, the ability to hear a small clue and follow it."

Once Bob broke the Duffy-Wright story, social media has been swamped with tweets, the pundits have been pontificating, talking heads have been talking, and speculating and doing their usual, not really adding much new to the story.

Meanwhile, as I started to work on this column, Bob posted on Twitter and Facebook that Duffy has now resigned from the Conservative caucus, and will sit as an independent senator but he has not resigned from the Senate. So far, Wright and Harper have provided no acceptable explanation. More to come!

The trial of Duffy is now underway.

Bob is one of those reporters who certainly fits the comment by former Washington Post Post executive editor Ben Bradlee who thought that a reporter's most important quality is energy: "They've got to love what they're doing; they've got to be serious about turning over rocks, opening doors. The story drives you. It's part of your soul."

Mr. Bradlee should know. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein reported to him as they covered the Watergate scandal in the United States.

Ironically perhaps, the last chat I had with Bob was at the 90th anniversary reunion of Chapleau High School in 2012 where we were participants in an ecumenical service. It fell to me to read from the Old Testament, (perhaps because of my age) from the book of Ecclesiates, the part about, "For every thing there is a season".

Being a product of the 1960s, I listened to Turn Turn Turn (to Every thing there is a season) made popular by the folk rock band The Byrds, with music written by Pete Seeger in 1959.

For sure it is a season for something in Canadian politics and Robert 'Bob' Fife, "simply the best" is part of it from Bruce Hutchison's far side of the street. How's that for mixing metaphors in one sentence!

My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Of necessity 'egotists and autocrats' as Mulroney sliced up Harper

 

By Michael J Morris

John Wesley Dafoe, arguably one of the most powerful and influential newspaper editors and journalists in Canadian history once wrote that "A prime minister under the party system as we have it in Canada is of necessity an egotist and an autocrat."  

In his essay on Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Mr. Dafoe added, "If he comes to office without these characteristics his environment equips him with them as surely as a diet of royal jelly transforms a worker into a queen bee".  

Mr. Dafoe was editor of the Manitoba Free Press, now Winnipeg Free Press, from 1901 to 1944  when it was among the great newspapers of the world.  

In 2014 Canadians  witnessed one egotist and autocrat Brian Mulroney, a former prime minister slice up the current occupant, Stephen Harper who also fully qualifies on both counts.

 Arguably Mulroney and Harper are members of the same political party, but rather than quibble over Progressive Conservative, Conservative and let's just say they are conservatives.  

  

Mulroney let loose his broadsides in an interview on CTV's Power Play, marking the 30th anniversary of Mulroney's big election win in 1984. If I had been him, I would have been annoyed too upon learning that the Harper Conservatives marked the occasion with a fundraising letter which apparently included no mention of Brian Mulroney or Progressive Conservative.  

  

 Now we are into an election campaign it is useful to look at the points Mulroney raised.

In brief here are the major points Mulroney made: Harper should not have got into a spat with the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada; Canada should not have lost its seat on the United Nations Security Council; the government’s foreign affairs policy “has to be enveloped in a broader and more generous sweep that takes in Canadian traditions and Canadian history in a much more viable way'.  

For good measure Mulroney also criticized Harper on his lack of a "pristine" environmental policy, and the former prime minister supported an inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women, something Harper  has opposed.  

However, it may have been his comments about Justin Trudeau, leader of the Liberal Party that would have enraged Harper most.  “He’s a young man, attractive, elected two or three times to the House, attractive wife, beautiful kids — this is a potent package when you’re running in these circumstances,” he told Power Play, adding  “His program is that he’s not Stephen Harper.”  

  

Wow! Nothing like a fight in the political family when one autocrat and egotist attacks another and praises the leader of a different political party who wants to be prime minister.

 I wonder what Mulroney would have to say about the Harper-Wright-Duffy affair.

 My email is mj.morris@live.ca 

  

Finding 'the good stick' while walking in the bush

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Years ago, when I was still living in Chapleau, my favorite place for a walk in the bush, some may call it the forest, but not me, was on the road leading to the Memegos property. I first started going there with Grandpa Hunt as a child to pick blueberries and continued until I left Chapleau over 26 years ago.

I did take a walk there during the Chapleau High School Reunion in 2012.

For my walks I would leave from our home on Grey Street, go over the "Indian Bridge" across the "back river" (Nebskwashi River) and head off towards Corston's Farm. On one particular day I recall that I had been trudging along for about three hours going here and there, and was now heading toward the Memegos family's land. My good friend, the late Willy Memegos had given me permission to walk on their land any time, and I will tell you more about that kindness later.

As I walked along the road, coming towards me was a man who I had often seen go by my house, but I did not know him. As he approached, he said, "Where is your good stick?", stopping to explain that he always carried a "good stick" with him. He moved it from hand to hand and he told me and it served to strengthen his arms and upper body.

"Maybe some day you will find a good stick too," he said smiling, and off he went, adding, "Maybe you will also see the wolf. It's auburn. Don't be afraid. He won't hurt you." I never saw the man again, or the wolf.

Shortly thereafter I came across a stick and picked it up. It wasn't as sturdy or straight as the one the man was carrying, but crooked as it was I had found my good stick. My good stick became my travelling companion helping me cross a beaver dam and walk along the edge of a pond. When I became tired I leaned on it and took a rest, and when I stumbled it helped me keep my balance, and aided me as I climbed a hill.

My good stick was very powerful indeed, and long after I lost it I thought that if that old piece of wood from a dead tree could have been so much help to me as I wandered along, giving me confidence to surmount minor obstacles, maybe the man I met on the road meant much more with his comments than maybe I would find a good stick and even see the wolf that would not harm me some day.

Let me return to my friend Willy Memegos and his family for a moment. Shortly after I became reeve (mayor) of Chapleau, we needed a new township public works superintendent and were not satisfied with the applications we had received.

 Councillors Ernie Gilbert and Dr G.E. Young suggested to me that we ask Willy if he would like the job. Willy had not applied but when we asked if he would like it with the option that he could return to the position he had at any time, he accepted. Let me just add that Willy's brothers Adam and Baptiste also worked for the municipality, and bar none, Baptiste was the best grader operator anywhere! And Willy never returned to his old job!

Until I left office in 1980, Willy would come to chat with me every day that I was at the Town Hall/Civic Centre, and gave me the benefit of his wisdom and guidance on all manner and sorts of things. Willy was a man of few words but he was always right on.

An example. Willy convinced me, and council agreed to let the township public works department assume responsibility for the installation of the water and sewer services to the "new' Chapleau General Hospital on Broomhead Road. One day Willy came into my office and said I had to stop construction according to the engineer's drawings because they were wrong. A change must be made. This led to a flurry of phone calls between us and the engineer's office, and it turned out that Willy was right and the engineer wrong! When I asked him how he knew, he replied simply, "I have a good eye."

Willy and his brothers worked on the original installation of the sewer system in Chapleau back about 1949!!!

The Memegos family also watched out for Grandpa Hunt who was well into his seventies and still picking blueberries..... I am getting close to that age too now!

I met Willy as I walked along to the road towards his land one day, and asked his permission to walk on it. "You can walk on my land any day," he replied. When I would reach the crook in the road I would always think of Robert Frost's poem 'The Road Not Taken' and realize that so often I took the road less travelled by, and that has made all the difference in my life.

But people like Willy, and so many others that I have met along the way over the years, became "the good stick" and made the journey easier. May each of you find your Good Stick!

In photo from left Premier William Davis, MJM, Clare Hoy (Toronto Sun) and Willy 1975, visiting site of Chapleau General Hospital

Friday Morning Coffee Club combines golf tournament with birthday party

Doing what FMCC members do best

Friday Morning Coffee Club, aka FMCC, took to the links, well kind of, for 18 holes of golf at the pitch and putt course located at the Elizabeth Lake Lodge on the outskirts of Cranbrook.

The golf tournament was combined with a birthday party for Bill and Antoine, and the welcoming of new member Ed to the growing membership list.

The special event was organized by Jim and Joel, with the latter doubling as official photographer. Joel also provided appropriate comments for the photos!

Although, it was a time for fun and fellowship as always, score cards were kept, and Ron, our resident golf pro emerged with a 58 for the 18 holes.

Ron demonstrated proper stance and professional putting.

 Just a week ago, FMCC celebrated Ron's 90th birthday with a party at his home

A pep talk was given on "fair play".

Antoine and Bill eye the birthday cake.

Peter putts in front of a huge gallery.

Gerry follows through as Peter and Jim observe his form.

Bill tees off showing iron grip.

Yme, just back from vacation, putts.

Jim demonstrates proper stance

Antoine does too.

Jim and Ed test the coffee.

Michael tallies the scores while Terry observes and Ron waits for the word.

Michael poses after his "hole in one". I know guys you will never hear the end of it!

And, from Joel:  "Michael watches as his ball disappears over the horizon while Ed watches in amazement."

And now, here is JOEL, one of FMCC founders as well as a member of the very popular group 'The Sound Principle